Marc Priestley disagreed with key McLaren radio message sent to Lando Norris in Hungary

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Lando Norris had to be asked by his McLaren race engineer if his radio was still working towards the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After a slightly sluggish start to the race, Lando Norris was forced to play rear gunner to teammate Oscar Piastri as the Australian looked set to win the first Grand Prix of his career.

At one point, Norris was told that his battle was with Max Verstappen behind him rather than his fellow McLaren driver, but that all changed during the closing stages of the race.

Suddenly, McLaren pitted Norris first and due to the powerful undercut in Hungary, they only had to leave Piastri out on track for a couple of laps for him to lose the lead.

When the 23-year-old did eventually come in, he was told Norris would hand the position back, but the several-second gap that had opened proved impossible to close.

The Brit suddenly a second victory of the season in his sights and the chance to put a substantial dent in Verstappen’s championship lead in the process.

Reflecting on what ensued over the team radio as a result, Marc Priestley was speaking on The Chequered Flag Podcast about what was said throughout the next dozen laps.

To begin with, the message to Norris was simple, hand back the place when convenient and to avoid losing too much time.

However, suddenly the tone changed when Norris began to question why they pitted him first if they didn’t want him to take the lead.

David Coulthard absolutely loved Norris’s response to one message he was sent by the McLaren pit wall as they tried to manage a potential PR disaster in real-time.

Priestley has now admitted that he disagreed with one of the reasons McLaren gave to try and convince Norris to hand over the lead of the race back to Piastri.

Formula 1 is a fickle sport and despite McLaren being on the ascendancy for the past 12 months, there are no guarantees they’ll still be in such a strong position next year.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from height and parents to celebration

Marc Priestley disagrees with one McLaren message sent to Lando Norris in Hungary

Reviewing McLaren’s team radio, Priestley said: “I think that’s exactly what he’s [Will Joseph] doing, he’s trying to manage how this looks.

“I’m not sure we’d have ended up in this situation back in the day.

“There’s two sides, one of the messages came along and said something along the lines of, ‘You don’t want to win a championship in this way, you want to do it the right way.’

“And yes of course there’s truth in that, but when you’re a driver, when you’re Lando Norris, you’ve got a tiny sniff albeit an outside chance of a championship, I’m pretty sure you’d take it any way you can.

“He’s never done it before, it’s the first opportunity he’s had and he wants to grab every opportunity he can and as you said, those seven points could be crucial.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Lando Norris has to decide what type of Formula 1 driver he wants to be this season

After five Formula 1 campaigns of gradual improvement, Lando Norris is now Max Verstappen’s closest title challenger this season.

The Dutchman developed a reputation during the 2021 season for being absolutely ruthless and collided with Lewis Hamilton on multiple occasions to secure his maiden championship.

It’s almost impossible to imagine Verstappen handing over a victory in the manner Norris did in Hungary, although he’s a designated number one within the Red Bull team whereas McLaren are unlikely to give either of their drivers that sort of title at this stage.

If Norris wants to win a world championship without that selfish streak, then he needs McLaren to build an even faster car.

Piastri is too quick for Norris to beat him on every occasion without some cooperation and there will be other tracks this season where the likes of Red Bull or Mercedes get the better of McLaren.

Norris has already lost too many points for a variety of reasons this season to be in a position to hand another seven to his teammate as he did in Hungary if he wants to stand a chance of earning his first F1 title.